Thanks for this information, Jo Ann. It's always helpful to be reminded of how the poor were taken care of. I have two poor relief applications which someone got for me from the Mitchell Library, I think, but as the applicants resided in Glasgow they ended up in the City Poor House, Parliamentary Rd., Glasgow (long since gone). I could contact the Mitchell to see if records for other than Lanarkshire are on file. Maisie ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Re: Market Hill Poorhouse records, Kelton Cty., KKBT (Jo Ann Croft) --------------------------------- Subject: Re: [WIG LIST] Market Hill Poorhouse records, Kelton Cty., KKBT Prior to 1845 when the government passed a law addressing the subject, the poor were taken care of by the kirk. Below is a quote from the NAS website explaining how it worked. This means that such records would be part of the Kirk Session records for each parish. I believe that all kirk session records are held by the Mitchell Library, but you could check with the Dumfries Archives. "Poor relief before 1845 The first acts of parliament to deal with the relief of the poor were passed in 1424. Most of these and subsequent acts in the 15th and 16th centuries were aimed at dealing with the problem of 'sturdy beggars'. Few records detailing individuals survive from this period. After the Reformation the responsibility for the poor fell on the parish, jointly through the heritors (local landowners) (NAS ref. HR) and the kirk sessions (NAS ref. CH2). The heritors often made voluntary contributions to the poor fund in preference to being assessed (a tax on the owners of land or property). The kirk sessions raised income for the poor from fines, payments for carrying out marriages, baptisms and funerals and church collections. Lists of distributions to the poor in cash and in kind will appear in records of the heritors and kirk sessions. Sometimes poor relief records were kept in a separate volume for that particular parish. In the majority of cases, however, you should look for minutes or accounts and then simply trawl through the entries to see if there are any relating to poor relief. Unfortunately there is usually no quick way of searching through these records since poor relief was almost always recorded in amongst all the other financial business of the parish." Here is a link to a good explanation of how the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright handled the situation after the passage of the "Poor Act". http://www.old-kirkcudbright.net/genealogy/poor.asp Jo-Ann On Thu, Jun 6, 2013 at 3:00 AM, <sct-wigtownshire-request@rootsweb.com>wrote: > > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2013 15:31:22 -0700 > From: "Maisie Egger" <campsiehills@sbcglobal.net> > Subject: [WIG LIST] Market Hill Poorhouse records, Kelton Cty., KKBT > > > I have been led to believe that the records for Kelton, Kirkcudbrightshire > are pretty dismal, but perhaps someone can cast some light on where the > records might now be stored for Market Hill Poor & House, Kelton County, > Kirkcudbrightshire. > > The census for 1841 shows a resident there at the age of 80, born 1761, > occupation pauper, born Kirkcubrightshire. > > I have copies of poorhouse applications for the City Poorhouse, Glasgow, > which are fairly informative, with names and addresses of children, > parents? names, etc. > > These records are in the Mitchell Library, Glasgow, one of the largest > reference libraries in Europe. > > Can anyone tell me about where the poorhouse records could be accessed for > Kirkcudbrightshire...under Dumfries & Galloway Archives? > > Maisie > > > ------------------------------